The Last to Know
by MissAnnThropic
Summary: The moment when Archer realizes there's more than friendship going on between Trip and T'Pol.


Title: The Last to Know

Author: MissAnnThropic

Spoilers: Xindi storyline

LiveJournal: miss_annthropic(dot)livejournal(dot)com

Summary: The moment when Archer realizes there's more than friendship going on between Trip and T'Pol.

Disclaimer: None of it's mine. I'm just a sad little fangirl that spends her days writing fanfic and watching DVDs of her favorite shows :(

Author's Note: Another fic written years ago and unearthed from the computer files, and the fact that it languished on my computer unposted so long probably says something, but who knows, maybe a couple of you will like it.

* * *

They say hindsight is 20/20. For Jonathan Archer, there were many moments in his life that exemplified that old adage. But few were as stark as when he got _it_. The enormous white elephant that was his second in command and his chief engineer.

Since the Xindi attack on Earth and their mission into the Expanse, Archer realized his focus had been directed wholly _elsewhere_. Once, he prided himself on how personable a captain he was, on how well he knew his crewmen. He liked being the approachable commanding officer. In the Expanse, Archer lost sight of that old Jon. His crew became links in the chain of command, pieces of the puzzle that together made the ship and the mission go. The people behind the duties got lost.

Of course, Archer had noticed a vast change in Trip after the attack. It was hard for anyone to miss. The death of Trip's little sister emotionally buckled the jovial southern boy. Archer saw it, and he hated it. There just wasn't time to coddle anyone. There was a job to do.

Trip was moody as hell, yelling at people left and right, until apparently Phlox prescribed him a therapy regime. Trip started to calm down. That was all Archer needed to know. He found out later that somehow T'Pol was involved, and he'd been surprised she would help the engineer she seemed to butt heads with on a regular basis, but whatever worked. He'd heard no complaints from her, so he let it go.

When Trip and T'Pol began to get along noticeably better, Archer put it down to a happy byproduct of Phlox's therapy.

But Archer didn't think there was anything more to it than just coping with a loved one's death. It was short-sighted of him, but Archer had other concerns.

The moment he got _it_ came on a Wednesday afternoon. Archer, Hayes, and T'Pol had been on a reconnaissance mission off the ship. The wreckage of a ship had been found floating dead in space inside a pocket of clear space within an asteroid field. The ship was in two pieces, bow and stern split almost evenly down the middle. Trip, Travis, and Cole took one shuttle to the nearest section of ship while Archer, Hayes, and T'Pol took the second shuttle pod to the farther section of ship. _Enterprise_, too large to safely enter the field, stayed well back while the teams went to determine of the ship was Xindi, and if so, what information they might extract from the wreck.

When Archer's team began to explore the second section of the broken ship, they soon discovered a problem. The stern held the engine core, and while the outer hull of the wreck had not shown any signs of Trellium-D, there was a shielded inner layer of the mineral around the engine itself.

They had to get T'Pol off the ship.

Of course, something that should have been easy wasn't. The sporadically-working electrical systems still carrying juice malfunctioned, and bulkheads were closing and opening unpredictably throughout the ship, slowing their progress back to the shuttle pod.

By the time they made it back to the shuttle pod, T'Pol was becoming violent and highly anxious.

Under ideal circumstances, Archer would have headed straight back to _Enterprise_ and dumped T'Pol off in sickbay. But it wasn't an ideal situation, and if the wrecked ship _was_ Xindi, they couldn't risk a Xindi salvage team showing up and whisking the potentially useful wreckage away. It had taken both shuttle pods too long navigating the asteroid field to make the trip all the way back to _Enterprise_ then back to the wreckage again.

It galled him to have to do it, but Archer packed T'Pol up in the shuttle pod, Hayes trying his best to keep T'Pol cornered in the back of the shuttle pod where she could do the least amount of damage, and he activated his comm. "Trip… do you copy?"

"Here, Captain… we haven't found much yet…"

"We've got a problem," Archer interrupted as he piloted the shuttle out of the split ship. "That back half of the ship contained high concentrations of Trellium-D."

There was a half-second pause. "Captain, you know T'Pol can't be around that stuff."

"I know. We're heading out now."

"_Now_? Why weren't you gone an hour ago?"

Archer didn't care much for the tone in Trip's voice. "If we could have, we would have."

Trip grumbled unintelligibly, then asked, "How's she doing?"

Archer looked over his shoulder. T'Pol was backed into a corner, body bent and arms wide as she eyed Hayes savagely. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat and her eyes were wild.

"Not good." But if it made any difference, Archer had seen T'Pol look worse. At least she wasn't screaming and lashing out… yet.

"So, you're heading back to _Enterprise_?" Trip asked.

Archer winced. "Not yet."

"What do you mean? T'Pol needs to be in sickbay."

"And we'll get her to Phlox as soon as we can, but we have to finish our scans on this ship first, before the Xindi show up to recover it. We're headed your way right now; I'm going to drop T'Pol off so Hayes and I can return to the stern section."

"Captain…" Trip said, clearly about to argue, then he gave up. "I'll meet you in the docking bay."

It wasn't hard for Archer to fly the shuttle pod into the mostly undamaged docking bay in the bow section of the wrecked ship. When the atmosphere circulated, Archer saw Trip walk through a door and head for the shuttle pod.

When Archer went to open the hatch, T'Pol flinched and scuttled away from him like a trapped wild animal.

"It's going to be all right, T'Pol," Archer tried to soothe. He was rewarded with rolling Vulcan eyes, like an untamed horse trapped in a corral.

The second Archer opened the hatch, Trip was there, trying to get past Archer to take a look at T'Pol.

Archer pushed the engineer back. After all, he had never seen just what this stuff did to T'Pol. "Back off, Trip."

"But, Captain…"

"I know you're worried, but believe me, you don't want to agitate T'Pol in her present condition. Best we can do is try not to upset her, because trust me, she _will_ get violent."

Trip clenched his jaw, clearly not happy with those orders, but he stood back as commanded.

Archer looked back toward the shuttle pod. "Hayes… move back and see if we can get her to come out."

Hayes disappeared, retreated to the pilot's seat, and T'Pol pried herself from the back corner of the pod. She looked ready to bolt, nearly panting.

"T'Pol… it's all right," Archer coaxed, "you'll be okay here. Come on out."

T'Pol moved shakily toward the hatch. With darting eyes, she stepped down to the docking bay floor.

She gave an odd croak and listed to the right. Falling.

Before Archer could shout an order to keep back, Trip hurried around Archer and reached out to catch T'Pol before she fell.

Too late to stop it, Archer braced for T'Pol to strike out at Trip for coming too close.

Instead, Trip collected T'Pol up in his arms, and she didn't fight his touch. She fell into him easily, almost _gratefully_. Her small frame practically folded against him. Trip stepped in close and held her against his chest.

Archer stared in shock.

T'Pol trembled in Trip's arms.

"Shhh," Trip soothed, bringing up one hand to smooth over her sweat-slicked hair.

T'Pol reared her head back, eyes closed, mouth open, and dropped her head to his shoulder. Her hands clutched his arms as he kept her upright.

"S'alright, T'Pol," Trip whispered.

T'Pol almost clawed at his arms, frantic and needy.

Obviously knowing what she meant by her speechless actions, Trip scooped her up in his arms, one arm under the bend of her knees and the other around her back. T'Pol curled into Trip's chest, shaky but _manageable_.

"Take it easy," Trip cooed in a voice Archer had never heard from the engineer before. Trip's fingers on her ribcage flexed. "Your heart's beating like a scared bird, T'Pol. Just relax. You're okay. I gotcha."

T'Pol opened her feverish, feral eyes and looked up at Trip. Stripped of her control, there was plain _adoration_ in her gaze.

Trip smiled down gently at her.

That was the moment Archer _got it_.

The moment he realized his two closest friends were crazy in love with each other.

He was just sad it took a literally swooning Vulcan for him to finally notice.

END


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